JOH Day 2: Monterey

Hey all,

Today marks my 2nd day on the Journey of Hope, a 50 mile ride from Santa Cruz to Monterey. After a 5:30 wake up call and breakfast, we all hit the road, continuing down the California coastline. Today's ride was a little easier than yesterday's, since there less hills and more flatland to ride through. We passed a lot of strawberry farms, and were even treated to a free box of fresh strawberries from some of the farmers. The ride was an overall success, as we all made our rack point on time and finished the ride on time.

After all of the cyclists congregated in downtown Monterey, we rode in double paceline to the Gateway Center, where we had another lunch/friendship visit with the residents there. The folks at Gateway were a little quieter than the other people I had met at other friendship visits, but were still very nice and fun to be around. I even got a picture taken for the local newspaper, who had sent a reporter to Gateway to do an article on our visit!

Later that evening, after a few hours of free time and hanging out with the other cyclists, we all went to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, and loaded up on burritos and chips, and sang Happy Birthday to our Project Manager, Paul. After running a few errands at Walgreen and the bank, I spent some time cleaning my bike with some of the other guys and getting ready for our dreaded 115 mile ride that we're doing tomorrow. It'll be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to my first 'century day' of the trip and pushing myself probably harder than I have ever before on a bicycle.

-Ethan

JOH Day 1: Sendoff

Hey all,

 June 12th marked the first day of my Journey of Hope bike ride. After an early 4:45 wake-up call, the rest of the team and I headed over to the Golden Gate Bridge with our bags packed and bikes racked to meet our families and make our final farewells before departing on our respective journeys. I was surprised at how calm I felt in the van ride to the bridge--in the months leading up to sendoff day, I had expected to be nervous and scared of what was ahead. I was extremely happy to see so many of my family members and friends at the bridge to send me off--my mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad, older brother, girlfriend, godparents (and their kids), one of my fraternity brothers & his girlfriend, and my dog, Keegan, all showed up to say goodbye. I got to spend a little time with them, take some (re: a lot) of pictures, and eat breakfast before taking off on my ride. After a few tearful goodbyes and lots of hugs, I piled into one of the vans to head over to the north side of the bridge, where the rest of the South team and I would begin our trek.

The beginning of the ride was somewhat anticlimactic--after crossing the bridge from the north side, we were stopped at the visitors parking lot for a little while again so the crew could scout the road ahead and figure out all of the turns and whatnot. I wasn't too upset, since it gave me the opportunity to spend some more time with my family (although I'm sure they wanted to go home and get back to sleep!). After another round of waiting and goodbyes, I set off with my paceline to outr destination, Santa Cruz, about 80 miles away. The ride itself was a little challenging with all of the rolling hills along Highway 1 (and a few unexpected stops/delays along the way), as well as the sheer distance, but the views of the Pacific Ocean were breaktaking, and the perfect way to set off our journey. Unfortunately, because of timing purposes, we were all racked at mile 47 and rode in the vans to our lodging point, Santa Cruz High School.

After showering and changing, we all headed over to our friendship visit with the local Easter Seals organization, which included an amazing barbeque with some new friends. We started a dance party after eating, which proved to be quite a workout. After pictures and speeches, we all said our goodbyes and went back to lodging at the Santa Cruz High gymnasium for a good nights rest.

I've been feeling really good about this trip, and all of the nervous feelings that I had once anticipated haven't come yet. Maybe its because I'm still in California and don't yet feel like I'm a way from home--regardless, I'm enjoying myself a lot, and, despite missing everyone back home already, am greatly looking forward to the next two months.

-Ethan

P.S. Pictures will be posted soon so stay tuned

First Entry!

Hey everyone,

Welcome and thank you for taking the time to read my Journey of Hope-2011 blog/journal. I'll be writing entries on here throughout the summer to keep you all posted on my progress as I travel across country, as well as posting pictures and videos along the way. 

For those of you are unfamiliar with what I am doing, this summer I will be joining approximately 100 other members of Pi Kappa Phi from all around the country as we ride our bikes from San Francisco/Seattle to Washington D.C. to raise money and awareness for people with disabilities through our fraternity's philanthropy, Push America. We'll be cycling on average 75 miles a day (I'll be going through the South), and along the way making stops at various philanthropic organizations that aim to promote the same ideals regarding persons with disabilities that Push American does. These stops--"Friendship Visits", as they're called--can be anything from a game of basketball to a backyard barbeque to a puppet show, all aimed at promoting the abilities of people with disabilities that are often overlooked by society.

We began orientation a few days ago, meeting at the Alpine Inn in San Francisco by the Cow Palace, where we've been staying for the past few days. The first day, the cyclists here--those going on the North and South routes--checked in, took care of some administrative stuff, and got settled into our hotel rooms. It was a little weird since my house is only about 20 minutes from our hotel, so it doesn't really feel like I've gone anywhere yet, especially hearing about how some of the guys here came all the way from the East Coast for the trip. After getting settled in, we took all went to McLaren Park for some introductory meetings, group talks, and a dinner of Little Caesar's Pizza. 

The next day was the first of our many 6 AM wake-up calls, where we had to be out the door and ready to go by 6:30. After a quick breakfast, we all went to the Teglia Center in Daly City for some lectures on safety, policies, procedures, and protocol for the trip--basically all of the boring stuff that you don't want to listen to, but have to if you want to survive on the trip. After our meetings, we headed over to the Janet Pomeroy Center, a San Francisco organization that provides a wide variety of activities for people with disabilities in the community. It was great to meet all of the participants at JPC, who were extremely happy to be there and hang out. After a game of basketball and a dance party, we all had dinner with JPC participants, provided by a few fellow Gamma Chapter alumni. When we got back to lodging, a few other JOH participants and I practiced for a puppet show which we will be performing later this month.

Today, our third day, we had another 6 AM wake up call and early breakfast before hitting the road to take team picture at the Golden Gate Bridge. Although I've ridden across the bridge lots of times and seen it more than I can count, I had never seen it at sea level from the Marin side, which looked great. After team pictures, we went to the Cow Palace parking lot to get on our bikes for 'skills assessment', where the crew members and staff held a series of exercises to test basic but necessary cycling skills that we'll be utilizing on the road. These tests included practice pacelines, fixing a flat tire, riding in a straight line (apparently harder than it sounds), and weaving our bikes through an obstacle course (which I failed twice--back to training wheels?). When we were done with that, we went back to our hotel for some free time, where I took care of some bike maintenance stuff and relaxed for a bit. Later on we all piled into the vans for a fantastic dinner of In-N-Out at Fisherman's Wharf, which many of the JOH participants were experiencing for the first time. Needless to say, they were amazed at the awesomeness that is the Double-Double and Animal Style fries. After walking around the Pier for a bit with a few of the guys, we all went back to lodging for some free time until curfew/lights out. Spirits are now high, as we just found out we get to sleep in an extra half hour!

Overall, I've really enjoyed the past few days and getting to know all the guys that I'm going to be spending the next 2 months with. All of the nervous feelings that come with leaving home for 2 months to ride a bike across the country are yet to come, so I'm grateful that I haven't had a lot to worry about for the past few days. I'm slowly getting used to waking up early, having to ration my food portions (something I never quite learned in college), and being on a very strict schedule for most of the day, since it's all worth the experience that I'm about to take part in.

Thanks for reading, and Go Bears,

-Ethan